A Bunch of Seemingly Smart People
Look Who Harvard and Stanford B-Schools Just Rejected
Fortune
It’s not especially surprising that there’s steep competition to get into these two top business schools. But rejections of accomplished candidates without even an interview can be perplexing — especially for the rejectees. John A. Byrne of Poets and Quants, a web site focused on business education, asked Sandy Kreisberg, an MBA admissions consultant, to analyze why three particular people were left hanging. The first is an Indian-American who graduated from Wharton with a 3.45 GPA, worked at L.E.K. and Barclays, scored a 740 on the GMAT, and climbed Mount Everest. The verdict? He’s a solid silver with a lowish GPA and experience at second-tier consultancies. “No surprise here,” says Kreisberg. The second is a woman with two start-ups under her belt and a 3.5 undergrad GPA. “I believe you were rejected because of your lowish grades,” speculates Kreisberg. Also, “schools are suspicious of start-ups because any moron can do one and many have.”